ADDITIONAL NOTES TAKEN BY COMMISSIONER. 195 



They do not get as many sgneteague on the Vineyard sliore as last 

 year, thongh small sqneteagne have been rather plenty this year. We 

 get a few pompanos. Tautog are rather scarce. 



English herring are brought here from about Koman's Land. They are 

 about half as large as the alewives that we get in the spring. They are 

 canght about the last of October. 



Menhaden have been very plenty this year. There have been very 

 few boats fishing in our harbor this year. Our common alewives were 

 never more plenty than this spring; we could not sell them, they were 

 so plenty; they could be bought for 25 cents a barrel. The Vineyard 

 fishermen turned out a great many, because they could not sell them. 



In Clarke's Cove the pound-men did pretty well, as the herring helped 

 them out in the spring. There are seven pounds between this city and 

 Mishaum Point. 



Six of the small scup in the shop were weighed, amounting to 2 pounds 

 and 1 ounce, or an average of a little over 5 ounces each. 



Dates tchen the fish were first brought in. 



Herring, April 3, from Westport. In 1870, from Edgartown, sis hun- 

 dred herring, April 1. Tautog, April 17, from North Tisbury, and one 

 shad. ^laclcerel, about 2d of May. Striped bass, May 4, from the Vine- 

 yard. Scup, May 7. Bluefish, about June 1 ; most plenty from 10th to 

 14th of June. 



Mr, Bassett said he had no doubt that the pounds had caused the 

 decrease in the fish. 



Mr. Presbrey Luce, of Martha's Vineyard, says he has a pound on 

 the north side of the Vineyard, at Paintville. Scup were quite plenty 

 there this year and last ; he got 50 barrels at one time. 



Blue-fish were more scarce about the Vineyard this year than last. 

 The business of pound-fishing there has been overdone, and the pounds 

 generally there have not done as well this year as the last. Mr. Luce 

 thought the proposition in regard to a close time, as proposed in the bill 

 prepared last year, a fair one, and did not think there would be any ma- 

 terial opposition to such a law. 



